Inside the Hermit Kingdom: IT and Outsourcing in North Korea

THE OUTSIDE WORLD'S view of North Korea ranges from the fear of nuclear demagoguery, through tales of economic difficulties, to the fun poking of the film Team America. Behind these and many other-almost universally negative-projected images of the country, there is another side. Somewhat unexpectedly, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea-to use its official title-has a sizeable IT sector. Some 10,000 professionals work in the field, and many more have IT degrees. They are already engaged in outsourcing contracts for other countries, and keen to expand further. © 2012 ACM.